About 200 former athletes expected at reunion
When Tim Cronin heard that Cliff Branch died, he knew what to do: Reach out to other teammates from the University of Colorado track and field team and plan a get-together. Let those former Buffs know how much their years together on the track team meant; tell them what they meant to each other.
Branch, who went on to star as a wide receiver for the Oakland Raiders in the NFL, was a sprinter with Cronin on CU teams that were a track powerhouse under head coach Don Meyers. He and Cronin were tight, and his death affected Cronin deeply.
“I realized that life and relationships are fragile and need to be nurtured and honored,” explained Cronin, a Colorado state high school 880-yard champ who was able to reconnect with former cross country teammate Bob Campbell via a 2016 cross country reunion just before Campbell passed away. “Because of that I was reintroduced to many of my old teammates and we have remained in touch.”
Talking with Cronin about it, I immediately thought of the Andrew Marvell poem “To His Mistress,” with its evocative line: “And behind my back I always hear, Time’s Winged Chariot hurrying near.” When we are young and fit, Time is often nowhere to be seen; but when your teammates and friends pass, the inexorable passage of time strikes home.
Cronin reached out to Kimbirly Orr, executive director of the CU Alumni C Club, who enthusiastically jumped into the task of arranging a reunion for all past Colorado track and field and cross country athletes after getting the goahead from athletic director Rick George and longtime head coach Mark Wetmore. A planning committee that included
Cronin, former Buffs Catrina Campbell, Sara Slattery, Danny Reese, Mark Mounsey, John Gregorio and Lex Butler, along with current Buff Paxton Smith was formed. And under the
able leadership of Orr, the reunion was scheduled for September 2020.
Now, after a year’s delay, the reunion is finally approaching, set for this weekend on and around campus. Roughly 200 past alums are expected, ranging from former coach Meyers — himself a star pole vaulter and jumper under legendary head coach Frank Potts (19271968) — to Cronin, Gregorio and on to well-known names such as the Slatterys, Eduardo Torres and Olympians Jorge Torres, Adam and Kara Goucher, Jenny Simpson, Emma Coburn, Shalaya Kipp and Val Constien, as well as Coburn’s coach and husband, Joe Bosshard, Members of the 2021 CU teams will get a chance to meet and talk with their predecessors.
“It has been a long way to get here,” Orr said Wednesday when I stopped at her office up on the fifth floor of the Champions Center on campus to see how the reunion was progressing. “The details make the event.”
I had a preview of some of the details during my visit to Orr’s office. There, stacked along the wall,
were the plagues of Buffs who had earned various honors over the years. They had hung in Balch Fieldhouse, and Orr had them all alphabetized, ready to hand back to the former athletes when they arrive on Friday. Some names I recognized — Sandy Simmons, who ran on two championship CU relay squads and who went on to win the first Bolder Boulder in 1979 and Marcus Walker, from the Don Meyers era, a national champ in the 120-yard high hurdles.
Robeto Carmona, who competed from 1990 to 1993, is traveling from Mexico City with his family. Many others are bringing along their families. In addition to coach Meyers, former head coach David Troy is traveling from retirement in Kentucky to attend. In its 94-year history, there have been only six head coaches of the combined men’s and women’s track programs: Potts; Meyers, the late Dean Brittenham; Troy; the late Jerry Quiller and Wetmore.
In addition, Boulder’s Rich Castro was an assistant coach and the first women’s coach, followed by Tracy Sundlin; the late
Kathy Jackson was the women’s head coach before dying after getting hit by a car while on a run near Boulder Canyon; and Gordon Fox, before the men’s and women’s programs were rejoined under Wetmore.
“It is a historic and storied legacy,” said Orr, who is organizing reunions for six CU sports this fall. “We are ready to welcome the alumni back. I feel a personal sense of joy at being able to meet the athletes I have only read about.”
The reunion’s goal? There are two, Orr said.
“We want to encourage our alumni athletes to support our quest to bring the Pac 12 (track and field) championships back to Boulder in 2024” and to celebrate Colorado’s cross country and track and field history and tradition. This tradition means more than titles won and fast times run.
Cronin said about his CU track days: “I learned how to be a teammate, how to work hard — although not as hard as I should have — how to be a leader and how to value the time we had together. I used this in every job and every aspect of my life. It is why I stayed in touch with Cliff (Branch).”
Coach Quiller, added Cronin, “taught me how to start over and second chances are important and essential. Furthermore, forgiving yourself and moving forward is actually how we grow. I stayed in touch with Meyers and Quiller ever since college. I had the chance to thank them for all they did and for taking a chance on me.”
As I left the Champions Center, Wetmore was sending this year’s CU men’s cross country team — a couple dozen lean, fit, shirtless guys exchanging easy banter — off on an easy run. All at once, I was transported back several decades to another group of lean, fit, shirtless runners, stretching outside Balch Fieldhouse on a sunny afternoon after classes before heading down the same hill for an easy run. I tried to hold onto the vision, taking pleasure in remembering the faces, feelings and friends. Suddenly, the memory vanished, swept away in the whoosh of a skateboarder drawing near. Or was it a winged chariot?